European Court rules on Kettling case

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled against the case of the protesters who were kettled by police at Oxford Circus in London on May Day 2001. However, there were three dissenting judges.

A press conference will be held today, 15.3.12, at Doughty Street chambers in London at 1-3pm.

May Day detainee Lois Austin commented:

This is a very disappointing judgement, we have campaigned for 11 years to defend the right to protest and stop the use of routine kettling tactics against protesters.

We note three dissenting judgements, which question the use of detaining protesters in a supposedly democratic society.

The campaign for the right to protest will continue and will go hand in hand with the fight against cuts, wars and erosion of civil liberties and democratic rights.

Today many more people have the same views as the anti-capitalist protesters had in 2001 as we have seen with the international Occupy movement. In Britain we face years of austerity - the campaign will go on.